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Hospital parking woes prompt council discussion

Intelligencer file photo
Coun. Egerton Boyce contends parking issues in the city’s east end are the responsibility of Quinte Health Care raher than the City of Belleville. The city is proposing further parking restrictions on streets where people are leaving their vehicles while they visit or attend their jobs at Belleville General Hospital.

A city councillor is recommending, before restricting parking across a swath of east end streets near Belleville General Hospital, council review swelling public response to the proposed sweeping changes.
City clerk Matt MacDonald said council will be able to review the results of public input at the next council meeting.
“The response has been significant and it was still coming in when this (Jan. 8 council meeting agenda) was being prepared,” MacDonald said. “We’re anticipating next meeting.”
Coun. Egerton Boyce wants a proper review of the feedback before council conducts the final two readings of the proposed bylaw. He’s somewhat apprehensive about the city’s approach to rectifying the issue he contends is the hospital’s problem to begin with.
“It’s very fortunate that we only did the first reading because there has been a lot of issues that have arisen in terms of what we’re trying to do to an issue that shouldn’t be our issue, it should be the hospital’s issue in terms of parking, but we seem to be the ones that are trying to regulate it,” Boyce said.
The suggested restrictions are aimed at discouraging people heading to Belleville General Hospital from parking on nearby roads for several hours.
A proposal to restrict parking for an extra two hours each day on several roads in the vicinity of BGH was circulated for public input.
Coun. Mitch Panciuk asked if it was possible to refer the file back to the committee “so we can consider it and maybe come back with a recommendation for when it comes back to council.”
At a recent meeting, Coun. Jack Miller said with no parking allowed on Bridge Street due to bike lanes it’s becoming extremely prohibitive in a large quadrant of the city, which stretches from Albert Street to east of Hastings Drive and all the way north of Victoria Avenue.
“For two hours of the day there will be no parking anywhere on a significant portion of streets,” he said. “I’m not quite sure how we’re going to handle that because not everybody has driveway access.” Miller, who serves as chairman of the traffic advisory committee, said it’s been an ongoing issue which has been complicated by eight different rules governing on-street parking in that area.
“We want to clean that up and make it more consistent, that’s why we’re going from the current eight down to four,” he said. “We’re finding safety concerns for people who are home owners in that area where they’re being blocked in. There has been many near misses.”
He noted permitted hospital street parking is now pushing outside the boundaries set by council. Hospital executives have said there is room in the lots at BGH, but people are choosing to stay on the fringes.